“New Jersey has treated Todd as their priority throughout the free-agent process,” said Aaron Goodwin, MacCulloch’s rep. “Todd sees the Nets as a chance for him to play significant minutes. And he sees a nice nucleus that includes a first-team All-NBA point guard [Jason Kidd] to get him the ball. All around, it’s a good opportunity.”

The offer becomes official on Wednesday, when the NBA’s moratorium on free-agent signings and trades ends.

Then the Sixers will have 15 days to match the offer or watch MacCulloch, who was slated to back up Dikembe Mutombo in Philly, head up the turnpike.

The Sixers, who have reached agreement with both Mutombo and Aaron McKie, is trying to avoid paying too much in luxury tax. With their two signings, plus MacCulloch, they would be roughly $5 million over the $54 million luxury-tax plateau.

So there is a chance they won’t match the Net offer.

Goodwin said he had no indication how Philadelphia was leaning.

MacCulloch, 25, is viewed by the Nets as a player with a tremendous up side. He has good hands, displays good footwork and is a legit inside presence. The main question concerns time. He averaged 9.5 minutes – scoring 4.1 points with 2.7 rebounds. The Nets will be looking to him to play 30 minutes a night. MacCulloch’s stock soared in the playoffs, when he made the most of limited time.

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Knicks’ new assistant coach is Andy Greer, who was the interim at Northern Illinois last season. He’s also former college teammate of Jeff Van Gundy at SUNY-Brockport and former assistant to Van Gundy’s dad, Bill, at Genesee CC. …

Van Gundy on Patrick Ewing going to Orlando: “He’ll certainly give them a low-post scoring presence that they haven’t had. They obviously have a good team, they have as good a team as anybody in the East. I don’t think you can go wrong with his work ethic, even at his age. He still wants to compete. That’s more important.” …

Rod Thorn on Jason Kidd’s remarks that led to warning on tampering: “When I read it in the paper, I said, ‘What are you doing?’ So I had a [talk] with him and said, ‘You can’t talk about players under contract.’ “